Robert99

Yes. If the stairs were going to be routinely opened in flight, then there would probably be a control in the cockpit to do so and Cooper may have had knowledge of that. The hijacking may have been the first time that Cooper had seen the aft stair controls on a commercial 727 airliner.

There was a weather front passage through the Pacific Northwest just prior to the hijacking and the weather was actually improving at the time of the hijacking rather than getting worse.

If Cooper was wearing loafers, he would be shoeless when he landed.

The rate of climb instruments on the pilot's panel would not show the indications that Anderson and Rataczak discuss because they are ported to the outside of the aircraft hull. That is why Rataczak had to turn to look at the engineer's rate of climb instrument. The engineer's instrument wasn't ported to anything but just exposed to the cabin pressure. The rate of climb instrument that you have posted a picture of would indeed measure the change of cabin pressure and display that as a climb or descent expressed in feet per minute rather than pressure units.

Okay, so there was also a standard rate of climb instrument on the flight engineer's panel plus some other flight type instrument (can't read it) just above it. But the controls for the cabin pressurization are the other ones in this illustration.

The one you pictured is on the pilot's panel. The engineer's panel instrument can probably be set at a certain pressure change rate.

It is obvious that Anderson was referring to an instrument on the cabin pressurization panel and not to the rate of climb instrument on the pilot's panel.

I don't know what Anderson told you, but the rate of climb instrument on the pilot's panel doesn't have anything to do with the pressure indications in an aircraft with a pressurized hull. The instruments associated with the pressurization system show cabin pressure and the rate of change in the cabin pressure.

FlyJack, the instrument you posted a picture of is a standard rate of climb instrument which is part of the normal pilot's panel on practically every aircraft flying in 1971 and today. It was ported to sensors located on the outside of the aircraft hull. It did not have anything to do with the pressure inside the cabin. The cabin pressurization system in the 727 apparently had an instrument that measured the pressure inside the cabin and indicated the "cabin altitude". Normally, the cabin altitude on an airliner never exceeds the equivalent of about 8000 feet pressure altitude. But the 727 system apparently had the capability to determine the rate of change of the cabin pressure for the benefit of the passenger's comfort. For instance, after takeoff the cabin pressure would probably be set to lag the outside pressure. That is, the airliner would be higher than 8000 feet altitude when the cabin pressure finally made it down to 8000 feet. On descending, the cabin pressure would be set to lead the outside pressure so that both would be the same when the airliner landed and the cabin doors were opened.

The communications lingo and procedures plus the type of information that would be exchanged between the tower and the airliner.

This is a standard rate of climb instrument on the pilot's panel. It is unlikely that this type of instrument would be associated with the cabin pressurization system since it is linked to pressure ports on the exterior of the aircraft. The above instrument indicates a 50 feet per minute rate of climb. But since it is not moving, the needle simply does not go to zero when no changes are taking place. The cabin pressurization probably had an instrument where the rate of change of the cabin pressure could be specified.

No one saw the airliner over Portland since it was above an overcast and additional cloud layers.

That is an excellent observation about the body language of the cockpit and cabin crews. The three cockpit crew members have their arms crossed which means they have shut down and are not going to say anything. For the cabin crew, Alice is turned 90 degrees from the media which means she has completely tuned out. Only Tina and Flo are facing the media and Tina did most it not all of the talking.

Take a look at the first few posts on this thread and you will see a discussion and a lot of bitching about Quade locking the previous Cooper thread. Carr's posts should be on that thread. I don't think he had very may posts, or maybe none at all, on this Cooper thread.

As FlyJack points out above, Cooper was apparently not the last to buy a ticket. After Cooper bought his ticket, there was a delay of about an hour since the airliner was late arriving in Portland. So there was plenty of time for other tickets to be sold. However, Cooper was reportedly the last passenger, or next to last passenger, to board the airliner.

In other words, the airliner flew a straight line from the Red Bluff VORTAC in California to the Reno airport. That is completely logical.

The C-124 "loadmasters" would in all probability be career USAF personnel in the grades of E-5 or E-6. In addition to kicking things out of the aircraft, they would be responsible for loading the aircraft and making certain that the cargo was properly secured, and that the aircraft center-of-gravity was in the correct range. While 32 was not too old to be a kicker in the Korean War (the Korean Armistice was signed in late July 1953), Cooper was apparently a few years younger than that but would still fit in with the correct age range.

Excellent, Georger, excellent!! In the next class period we will cover why 2 + 2 = 4!

The simplest route for the hijacked airliner to get from Seattle to Reno is the one it took. In the Oakland Air Traffic Control area, the airliner was also under radar coverage from the handoff from Seattle ATC to its arrival at Reno. The Oakland controller told the airliner where he had him on radar and also discussed the airliner's location on radar with the Reno controller. The airliner climbed to 11,000 feet in California in order to get over the mountains between V-23 and Reno. Except for the Portland area, there are no questions about the airliner's flight path.

The actual facts are that Georger and I worked very closely for about a year in the 2010 time frame. Then he went ballistic and that ended that. In 2010, I had to point out to Georger that North was usually at the top of a map. Now he is an expert and pontificating on the subject.

Georger, you need to start reading Dr. Edwards' book and blog. Of course, I don't speak for the Washington State Historical Society, the Washington State History Museum, or any other organization or individual. However, I do speak for myself.

Cooper never agreed to any flight path or plan and never specified any flight path or plan. He only agreed to land at Reno to refuel and never discussed any flight paths to get there.

Check your PM's.

The so-called FBI flight path is nonsense. Dr. Robert Edward's has recently posted on his blog that he was told by an FBI agent that they did not have anything to do with producing that flight path. It was reportedly given to the FBI by USAF personnel without any supporting data or explanation of the methodology that produced it. There are 19 redactions from the radio transcripts of the Seattle Air Traffic Control Center and the airliner's communications. There are also a large number of redactions from the teletype transcripts of the communications between the airliner and the ARINC radio system.

Welcome to DZ and keep posting.